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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Times Advocate, 2004-02-04, Page 12TIMES -ADVOCATE Crossroads 12 Wednesday, February 4, 2004 Exeter Times Advocate Open house raises money for Rose Cherry Home By Scott Nixon TIMES -ADVOCATE STAFF EXETER — Thanks to a local Christmas open house, the Rose Cherry Home for Kids has anoth- er $2,800 in its pockets. Jeanie and Murray Lee of Huron Street, in con- junction with the Order of the Eastern Star, held a "Twelfth Day of Christmas" open house in their home Jan. 3-4, receiving 429 visitors. Rose Cherry is the late wife of hockey commenta- tor Don Cherry. A few years ago, Rose lost her fight with cancer. The Rose Cherry Home for Kids, being built outside Milton, will provide pedi- atric hospice care and respite services for chil- dren with life threatening illnesses. The centre is slated to open in the sum- mer. While Jeanie and Murray Lee held an open house three years ago, it was on a much smaller scale than last month's, which saw every room in their home decorated with Christmas decorations and Don Cherry checks out construction of the Rose Cherry Home for Kids, which will provide care for chronically sick children up to age I8.The centre, being built outside Milton, is slated to open this sum- mer. (photo/submitted) ornaments. Thirteen Christmas trees were dec- orated, the majority of them over seven feet tall, including four rotating trees. As members of the Order of the Eastern Star, the Lees were approached to hold a fundraiser for the Rose Cherry centre. As Jeanie explained, it took a lot of work to get ready, including nearly two months of putting up deco- rations. The 13 Christmas trees featured different themes, including music, angels, crystal, nature and snow- men. One of the highlights, Jeanie said, was a tree with a Victorian -era theme. Included on display were Jeanie's wedding dress from 1961, her grandmother's wedding dress from 1915 and her great grandmother's wed- ding dress from the 1800s. Baptism dresses from 1917 and the 1800s were also on display. "Every room in the house was decorated for Christmas," Jeanie says, including the kitchen, which featured electric trains running overtop the cupboards. Murray also has an extensive collection of the "North Pole" series of Christmas scenes. A guest book shows peo- Murray and Jeanie Lee held a Christmas open house in their Huron Street home in early January.The event saw 429 people visit their home and $2,800 was raised for the Rose Cherry Home for Kids. (photo/Scott Nixon) ple visited the Lee home from places as far away as Sudbury, the Ottawa area and Windsor. Some of the comments by visitors included "awesome and wonderful," "just great," and "breathtaking." Murray said one visitor came to the house three times over the weekend because she kept discover- ing new decorations on every visit. The open house was promoted by the 168 Order of the Eastern Star chapters in Ontario, which includes 15,000 members. Jeanie is the province - wide treasurer for the fra- ternity. Of course, the Lees, who have lived in their Huron Street home since 1983, had help with the open house. The Eastern Star chapters in Exeter and Parkhill provided cookies and sweets for guests and many people helped tour guests through the home. "Everyone just had a wonderful time," Jeanie said. For more information on Rose Cherry's Home for Kids, check out the Web site at www.rosecher- ryshome.ca. To make a donation, call 1-877-406- 7673. Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design Have you ever wondered why some properties are victimized and others are not and what makes one property more sus- ceptible to criminal attack than another? Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) holds some of these answers by providing a common sense way to improve the safety of your environment. CPTED is a pro -active crime - fighting technique that believes "the proper design and effective use of the built environment can lead to a reduction in the fear and incidence of crime as well as an improvement in the quality of life". CPTED works by eliminating criminal opportunities in and around your property. By get- ting your property "right," a criminal may avoid giving it a second and closer look. This keeps your property safer, by decreasing crime opportunity. CPTED need not be expensive or difficult to apply and simply involves taking advantage of your property's natural surveil- lance, access control and terri- torial potential. Natural surveillance review In order to proceed, start by taking a fresh look at your property's natural surveillance potential. • Are views from neighbour- ing properties or streets obscured by landscaping or fencing? • Are there any adult -sized hiding spots around my doors or windows? • Are there areas of contrast and shadow around the building where intruders can linger undetected? If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, your proper- ty's natural surveillance poten- tial needs to be improved Consider adding motion acti- vated lights, reducing landscap- ing, or altering fencing so intruders can be kept under observation. Access control review Take a fresh look at your property's access control poten- tial. Ask yourself: • Do people routinely violate my property and/or fence lines? • Can this be done in an inconspicuous manner? • Do people access my prop- erty in ways other than I intended? • Do any existing access routes lack natural surveil- lance? • As a result of the placement or existence of outdoor furni- ture, equipment and/or utilities, is there potential to access an otherwise inaccessible window, door or opening? If you answered "yes" to any of these ques- tions, your prop- erty's access con- trol needs to be improved. Consider better control of unde- sired movements onto and within your property. Install land- scaping, fencing or barriers to increase the conspicuousness of anyone breaching a boundary or reinforce an existing bound- ary that's already been subject to trespass. When selecting fencing or landscape materials, take into account maintenance require- ments and the impact of mature landscaping on natural surveillance. For maximum landscaping effectiveness, con- sider a species with thorns. Finally, keep furniture, equip- ment and/or utilities, whenever possible, away from otherwise inaccessible windows, doors or openings. Remember, access control decreases crime oppor- tunity. A territorial review Take a fresh look at your property. Ask yourself: • Do strangers regularly tres- CPTED provides a common sense way to improve the safety of your environment. pass on my property? • Is my property being used as a short-cut? • Does my property ever have an unlived-in or unkempt look? • Are there underutilized sec- tions of my property where the public is invited and people feel comfortable loitering? If you answer "yes" to any of these questions, your property's design needs to be improved. Take steps to rectify this by cre- ating or extending a sphere of influence around your property. For businesses and resi- dences, this can be done through strategically placed markers, flower beds, low fences, walls, hedges, signage; better and/or more timely maintenance, and where the public is invited, assigning pur- poses to "leftover spaces." For residences, don't forget to create an "illusion of occupan- cy." This is extremely important in deterring thieves. Accomplish this by making sure your lawn is maintained, your driveway is shoveled and your circulars are picked up. Use timers to control your lights and have someone check your property. And don't forget to join and participate in Neighbourhood Watch and for businesses, Business Crime Watch. Target hardening For maximum crime preven- tion benefits, target hardening should be applied with CPTED principles. For target hardening advice, please look over home security. CPTED's track record CPTED techniques are direct- ed against crimes of opportuni- ty. Where these techniques have been applied to problem settings, crimes of opportunity have decreased by as much as 90 per cent. Interior applications? CPTED is equally effective when applied to building or store interiors. CPTED's uni- versality results from its ability to help various disciplines do a better job of achieving their pri- mary objective. Designers and merchandisers have discovered the application of CPTED tech- niques have reportedly increased sales by as much as 33 per cent and decreased security problems by 50 per cent. Maximizing CPTED benefits CPTED provides the opportu- nity to design in crime preven- tion and design out crime. For maximum benefits, CPTED should be applied at the design or planning stage when these benefits can be achieved at little or no cost.